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    <title>Help On LaTeX \baselineskip and \baselinestretch</title>
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<h3>Hypertext Help with LaTeX</h3>

<h2>\baselineskip \baselinestretch</h2>

<p><tt>\baselineskip</tt> is a
    <a href="ltx-86.html#lencmd">length command</a> which specifies
    the minimum space between the botton of two successive lines in
    a paragraph. Its value may be automatically reset by LaTeX, for
    example, by font changes in the text. The value used for an
    entire paragraph is the value in effect at the blank line or
    command which ends the paragraph unit.</p>

<p><tt>\baselinestretch</tt> scales the value of
    <tt>\baselineskip</tt>. Its default value is 1.0 but it may be
    reset with a <tt><a href="ltx-18.html">\renewcommand</a></tt>
    command. If one wants to change the spacing in a document one
    should reset <tt>\baselinestretch</tt> and <strong>not</strong>
    <tt>\baselineskip</tt> as the latter may be reset automatically
    by LaTeX to account for local variations in the text, but it is
    always scaled by the former. In principle, "double spacing" can
    be obtained by <tt>\renewcommand{\baselinestretch}{2}</tt>.</p>

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<p>
    See also: <a href="ltx-86.html">Lengths</a><br>
    Return to the <a href="ltx-2.html">LaTeX Table of Contents</a>
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<address>
    Revised 23 Jun 1995.
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